


The Offer

by TreehouseW



Series: An Ever-adapting Canvas [3]
Category: GURPS
Genre: Cyberpunk, Female Protagonist, GURPS - Freeform, Gen, Italian Mafia, Mystery, Original Character(s), Roleplaying Character, Science Fiction, Supernatural Elements
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-04
Updated: 2021-02-04
Packaged: 2021-03-16 10:14:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,319
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29205675
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TreehouseW/pseuds/TreehouseW
Summary: After arriving at the spaceport, Nikita enters a mysterious door where she meets an exquisite character.She has a choice to make, but is it really a choice at all?
Relationships: Nikita & Giulio
Series: An Ever-adapting Canvas [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2119443
Comments: 2
Kudos: 2





	The Offer

# An Ever-adapting Canvas

## Chapter 2: The offer

The man lowers his arms and his smile fades into a straight face. A short moment of silence fills the room, and the walls' complete whiteness hurt my eyes a little bit. He then continues, "I assume you aren't an esteemed visitor of our city," he sharpens his face and a smirk appears, "no… rather you’re an outcast.”

I assume he pulls these moves on everyone who enters through the door behind me and I'm a bit shaken by how quick his expressions change. I avert my eyes and chuckle a little. "Cut the chase and tell me why I was to walk through this door, instead of following regular protocols." I try to show that I'm not impressed by his repertoire of witty remarks, only to find out witty remarks is all he's capable of.

“Oh dear, I’ve got myself a fiery one!” and he lets out a few chuckles of entertainment. “I’m afraid regular protocols would’ve led you straight to the homeless shelter! And believe me when I say you don’t want to stay there.” He turns around and grabs himself a chair which was standing in the far left corner. He then places it right in front of me and takes a seat.

He is so close to me that I feel my personal space shrinking and shrinking. I frown to let him know I'm not entirely comfortable by his approach. He doesn't seem to care and starts to lower his voice, almost whispering into my eyes.

"What if I could provide you with proper housing, to give you a little jumpstart in the greatest city in the world. Let your refugee status drift away and come out of the ocean that we call space as a real citizen." This time he doesn't smirk but stays calm and deadly serious.

“I’ve been around long enough to know there isn’t such a thing as a freebie.” I’ve had my fair share of cons back home and I tend to smell poop miles away, although I feel like this man doesn’t even try to hide his shady background.

"Of course nothing comes free, even in this heaven-sent community," he groans. He drops his cheery lunatic persona, “I simply ask for a few favours in return. It might be time to properly introduce myself." He puts the chair away after he stands up.

He spins around as if he wants to make this moment as dramatic as possible. He spreads his arms again and trades his profound groan for a higher-pitched sound, "Rejoice! You are in the company of Cyberia’s number one recruiter! A Recruiter of what, you may ask?”

I feel like I keep triggering this man’s mania, but listen carefully anyway.

“The greatest organization of all time!” he proclaimed as if the room was filled with an actual audience. “The Golden Truffle! Or as la familia it calls, La Tartufo D’oro, but you probably don’t know Italian.”

He is right. I only learned the common tongue of this planet and I don't know the first thing about anything other than that Cyberia is the so-called greatest city on this planet. I must look clueless to him and he smirks before continuing his little speech.

“My name is Giulio Sorente, but you can call me Giulio,” and he calms down a little.

I’m quite speechless and I feel like I’m in some sort of strange movie. Giulio eagerly looks at me for some kind of reply. I refuse to let him stomp all over me with his energy, so I stand up.

“I am called Nikita, Nikita Tolstoy, and you can call me Miss Tolstoy,” as I say with a cheeky smile.

Giulio looks kind of surprised and he hesitantly opens his mouth, "that doesn't sound otherworldly to me at all. Are you sure you just came off a spaceship?"

“You aren’t the only one who can be witty,” –my smile stays on as I enjoy his reaction— “I did some research on this city while travelling. I read a book called ‘war & peace’ by some guy named Lev Tolstoy. I also read about a great leader of this nation, Nikita Khrushchev.” It seems I made quite the impression. “I just thought I’d adapt to local culture and I choose something from around here. This place was once called Russia, am I correct?”

Giulio bursts out in laughter and I can't help but smile back at him.

After he catches his breath, he replies "A smart one, I like that. Now let me ask you." He drops down to his serious voice, "are you interested in working for our humble organization?”

I try to act as if this is a difficult choice, but it really isn’t and Giulio knows that too. I don’t like the idea of tying myself to an organization this fast on arrival, but I don’t think I can just refuse and leave through the door I just entered. In this kind of situation, I learned it's better to just go with the flow than rebel like some kind of the main character in a show. I can just quit this organization later on, I think at least. There is so much I don't know, but what I do know is that there is no way back to my old planet and that homeless shelter didn't sound too appealing either. I just wish some peace and quiet after all that’s happened lately. I haven’t really gotten to process the fate of my planet and its people.

Giulio runs out of patience while I reminisce over the past few weeks. “Look, we can sit here all day, or you can just accept your fate. We know what you are, and we can make good use of your kind.”

Flustered by his remarks, I sink back into the chair. I should look like an ordinary human to him. I try to regain my composure, “What do you know?” I ask Giulio.

“I know enough, but that doesn’t matter. Get out of that chair and just go already. I’ll be in touch.” He walks towards me and hands me a card. “Go to this address, they know you are arriving in a few hours.”

I take his card, still a bit shaken by his words. “Fine, I’ll play by your rules for a while. Who should I ask for?” 

Giulio chuckles, “don’t worry, getting there is a challenge as it is, you won’t need to ask for a name once you arrive.” He steps aside and gently points to the door behind him with his arm.

I give him a confused nod and walk towards the door. Still, right before I open the door, I turn to Giulio and ask him one more thing "How is it that people were entering the door on the left constantly, but no one has interrupted our session?"

Giulio chuckles “You don’t really think this is the only room behind that door?” he sarcastically wooshes his hands “it’s magic!”.

I'm done with this man and this creepy room. I open the door and to my surprise, I see an alleyway. I try to make sense of the weird alleyway and come to a halt.

Giulio sighs at my hesitance “you’ll understand later, now off with you!” and he pushes me through the door and closes it behind me.

I look back, but the door disappeared into thin air. Suddenly my nose picks up a sour smell, I quickly realize it's probably some kind of fish. I decide to follow my nose out of the alley and end up at what seems like a small street with a few food stands. I take the little piece of paper Giulio gave me out of my pocket and inspect it closely. There’s not much to read, except “Friedrichstrasse 84”. I guess I know what I’ll be doing today.


End file.
